On this, Agnes’ birthday, this message is poignant and especially true for the hour we live in.
“It’s a difficult time to live; God is requiring of us a burning out of our self-life. He is requiring of us to die and we don’t die easy. Everyone else is wrong, not us. God is saying He wants to search our hearts.”
Now, more than ever, we must apply all that we’ve learned, be led by the Spirit, for His coming is near! God bless,
Your family at All Nations International.
Deuteronomy 30:10 “If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law, [and] if
thou turn unto the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul.
11 For this commandment which I command thee this day, it [is] not hidden from thee, neither [is] it far off.
12 It [is] not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?
13 Neither [is] it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?
14 But the word [is] very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.
15 See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil;
16 In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.
17 But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them;
18 I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, [and that] ye shall not prolong [your] days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it. 19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, [that] I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
20 That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, [and] that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he [is] thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”
That’s clear isn’t it? Sometimes we think we have to go somewhere to find Him. He said that the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thy mayest do it. What happens to us that we don’t do it? We try to ignore it, hoping it that it will go away. He says it’s not in heaven; we don’t have to go up to heaven to get it. It’s not beyond the sea; we don’t have to go overseas to get it. “But the word [is] very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.”
You know with this promise, not only comes the spiritual promise; but the natural promise as well. We are dealing in the natural as well as the spiritual. He said, “I command you, today, to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and keep His commandments, His statutes and judgments that you may live and multiply; for your God shall bless you in the land where you go, to possess it.” Then He said again “You must love the Lord, your God, and obey His voice, and cleave unto him: for he is your life, and the length of your days; so you may dwell in the land that the Lord gives you.”
Turn to 1st John 5: 1 “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.
2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
4 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, [even] our faith.
5 Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? 6 This is he that came by water and blood, [even] Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.
7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
8 And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.
9 If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son.
10 He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. 11 And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 He that hath the Son hath life; [and] he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.”
Deuteronomy 30:14 “But the word [is] very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.
15 See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil;
16 In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.
17 But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them;
18 I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, [and that] ye shall not prolong [your] days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to
possess it.
19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, [that] I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and
thy seed may live:
20 That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, [and] that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he [is] thy life, and the length of thy days:”
1st John 5:10 “He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that
God gave of his Son.
11 And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 He that hath the Son hath life; [and] he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.”
19 “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, [that] I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
20 That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, [and] that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he [is] thy life, and the length of thy days.”
It’s Christ, in us; He is this Living Word inside of us. He’s put His life in us and given us life and we don’t have to go all over the world looking for it. We have it inside of us. We need to take heed to what the Lord is saying. God has given His life to us and, in this scripture, it points directly to us. What we do with it is up to us for He has given us the record of His son. If we believe in Him, to change our lives, we’re going to live. It’s this son that we cleave to.
We need to realize that it’s Jesus, in us, who gives us instruction and direction. But if we don’t read His word and don’t know His word then the enemy comes to rob us.
The time is now that the Lord is saying to us, “I have given you my life, give to me your life that you may live. I give you truth and the anointing and I gave you my life. But if you choose to go another way, you are going against life and blessing. God has given us the first commandment.
It’s a difficult time to live; God is requiring of us a burning out of our self-life. He is requiring of us to die and we don’t die easy. Everyone else is wrong, not us. God is saying He wants to search our hearts.
This is a wonderful chapter. It is very direct in what God is saying. We must love Him with all our heart, mind, and soul. We must love Him with everything we have and cleave to Him, for He is our life. Without Him we have no life; without Him we will fail for He is our life. Cleave to Him for He is life.
How are we going to cleave to Him? We have enough praise here every night; are we entering that place, in the Lord, that He has called us to enter in to? He said, “I’ve given you this record; it is of my son; if you don’t have him, you don’t have life. With Him I have given you life, eternal life.” This life is in His son. If you decide to go another direction, God will never treat it lightly.
He doesn’t ask much of us; He just asks our all. If we don’t give Him our all we are miserable; for we are half in the world and half out of it. We aren’t clinging to Jesus because if we did, there wouldn’t be a place for anything else. Would there? If we clung to Him these other things wouldn’t affect us.
This is pretty straight. You don’t have to go into heaven to find it, you don’t have to go across the sea; the word is nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart! What happens that makes us want to do it? We have what we call a will. He says, “I command thee this day…” I don’t think we are going to get around it; because it’s a command from the Lord. He says, “The word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that you may do it.”
Why do we make it complicated? It’s in our mouth, and in our heart that we may do it. Then He gives it very boldly. 15 “See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil;
16 In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.” We can’t have God’s blessings and cursings at the same time we have to have one or the other.
I think it’s the same in Deuteronomy. It gives all the curses too, doesn’t it? It’s very clear that this is a command of the Lord. He said all these curses will go on your enemies and you shall return and obey the voice of the Lord and do all of His commandments. He said, “This day!” Why is He saying this day? It’s a time of decision. “Today, if you hear His voice, harden not your heart.” God is speaking explicitly. He said, “It’s this day; I show you the way to go. I set before you, life and blessings; choose life.”
We have a will. He’s saying to you choose life today. You’re not to choose it tomorrow or whenever you are ready. But He said, “This day I declare unto you I have given you the record of my son and this day, if He lives in you, you have His word for He is the Living Word! What are we going to do with it? He said that if you decide not to choose it today and decide not to realize that the word is very near you; in your mouth, and in your heart, to enable you to do it. He then says, I set before you good and evil; life and death and I command you, this day, to love the Lord thy God and to walk in His ways and keep His commandments.
17 “But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them;
18 I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, [and that] ye shall not prolong [your] days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it. 19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, [that] I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
20 That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, [and] that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he [is] thy life, and the length of thy days…”
This is the record that God has given of His son that if we believe on Him we shall have eternal life and if we do not believe on Him we are damned already. It’s a very simple truth.
We have a will and God is calling us tonight to give an account of what He has given to us of what we posses inside of us, in our mouths and hearts, so that we may do it. It is one thing to say we are Christians and another to obey the Lord and walk the way God would have us to.
This is a very exacting word of the Lord. In 1st John 5 there is another exacting word of the Lord. So if we have ears to hear, we need to hear what the Lord is saying to us. We need to cleave unto Him and let go of everything that hinders us from doing what He has called us to do. Inside of us there is no excuse, because He lives in us and we live in Him.
Choose good, choose life, that you might live. Choose blessings so that He might bless you and you will not have God’s curses or the enemy’s curses on you. He says to choose life and good. He says, “If you will hear my voice and hearken unto me and obey my voice…” Is it difficult? “Be strong and of good courage, fear not for the Lord thy God he [it is] that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.” The Lord wants us to purpose in our hearts that we are going to hear Him and do what He wants us to do; that we are going to follow His word and obey His voice.
Someone said, “I don’t know His voice! How do we know His voice?” He doesn’t thunder at me, does He thunder at you? There’s a little, small voice inside of us, “This is the way, walk in it. But you say, “My way is a little better, Lord. I like the other way a little better.”
What happens when we do that? We aren’t yielding to God’s way, are we? We aren’t yielding to His voice; we are telling God how to do it. “But God I want it this way!” That’s not the way it is supposed be. This day I tell you; today, now is the only time we have to yield our lives to Him and learn how to walk with Him.
Someone said, “How do you know it’s the Lord?” Someone else said, “You shut everyone else out and that’s how you know it is God.” You don’t hear any other voices but His and you learn; because if we hear any other voices, we will be in utter confusion and you are going to stay there. The Lord speaks to our hearts. This is the way that we may walk in the way of the Lord and we may know His way and do it.
Father, we thank you, tonight. Show us your way through your word; show us your will through the word. Show us Jesus by your word of eternal life to us. Mighty God, tonight, search our hearts and remove from us what hinders us. Let us hear your voice that, this day, we may know Jesus and invite Him to come into our hearts. Let us give our lives to you, with all our hearts, minds, and souls. Mighty God, we thank you for your commandments that direct our paths.
We thank you, Jesus, that you didn’t give us your commandments; but you gave us your word, that if we have them hidden it in our hearts, we won’t sin against you. This very night, God, help us to understand and to obey your word and to do it. Cause us to understand this word, that it’s Christ in us, the hope of glory. God pierce our hearts with the truth; pierce our hearts so that we will confess our sins and allow you cleanse us from all sin, that we might have your eternal life. Father, we thank you that you loved the world and that you gave us Jesus, that we might be saved.
This night let our hearts be saved, Lord; give us a new closeness of your presence, Lord Jesus, that we might draw near to you; that you might draw near to us and the enemy will have to flee. We ask you to set our hearts right with you. Fill our hearts with your love and give us a song in our hearts and give to us an obedient spirit, Lord. Let us arise in you and we give you the glory.
Jesus, we thank you for this record that we have of you. Mighty Christ, we thank you and we know that the record of you is true. We know that what you have done in our lives, Lord, brings us into your life. It’s according to your commandments, Lord. We thank you for the truth in us. Let us use our own free will to determine that our lives are going to be hidden in you, in God.
Separate us from the world; that this day we have made a decision and the enemy, though he comes, he has no more dominion over our hearts. We come to you with all our hearts, minds, and souls that we may have life abundantly. We praise you and thank you for the written word. We thank you for speaking to us today.
“Come now,” saith the Lord, “and hear what I have to say to thee and I will cause thy burdens to roll away and I will give thee of my life and thou shall be free.” Hearken unto His voice and do it, for the Lord will enable you to do it. So don’t harden your heart, hear what God has to say tonight. It isn’t afar off; it’s in your heart to do it.
God forgive us for playing games. Are we going to allow God to rule and reign in our lives? Lord Jesus, we praise you for this life you’ve given us. Let us know that we have heard your voice and we are going to let it change our lives, according to your word. We have chosen your life; good and blessings, Lord. We give you praise, Lord. In your wonderful name, we ask it. Amen.
Rev. Agnes I. Numer
January 19, 1996
